Reflections on the miracle of turning water into wine. IMPROVEMENT. 135 We have here the first of Christ's public miracles, which we find SECT. was not wrought till about his thirtieth year. How much sooner, could he have glorified himself, and amazed the world by the display of his Divine power? But he waited his Father's call, and the delay added at length to the lustre of his works. It was performed to grace a nuptial solemnity: and who doth Ver. not see that it was, in effect, a testimony borne to the honour and 1 purity of that happy state on which so much of the comfort of the present generation and the existence of the future regularly depends? How happy were these guests while Jesus was among them! and 2 how condescending did he appear in making one on the occasion! His social and obliging temper should sweeten ours, and be a lesson to his followers that they avoid every thing sour and morose, and do not censure others for innocent liberties at proper seasons of festivity and joy. If his mother met with so just a rebuke for attempting to direct 3, 4 his administrations in the days of his flesh, how absurd is it for any to address her as if she had a right to command him on the throne of his glory? And how indecent for us to direct his supreme wisdom as to the time and manner in which he shall appear for us in any of the exigencies of life? Her submission and faith manifested on this occasion are truly 5 amiable and with this we have surely reason to admire the benignity and generosity of Christ in this miracle before us; who consulted the pleasure and entertainment as well as the necessity of his followers; and by this abundant supply amply repaid any extraordinary expence which he might have occasioned to the family. How easily could he, who thus turned water into wine, have 7, 8 transformed every entertainment of a common table into the greatest delicacies, and have regaled himself daily with royal dainties? But, far superior to such animal gratifications, he chose the severities of a much plainer life. Blessed Jesus! who can say whether thou art greater in what thou didst or in what thou didst not do? May none of us thy followers be too intent on indulging our taste or any of our other senses; but, pursuing those intellectual and devotional pleasures which were thy meat and thy drink 10 on earth, may we wait for that good wine which thou reservest for thy people to the last, and for those richer dainties with which thou wilt feast those who shall drink it with thee in thy Father's kingdom! (Mat. xxvi. 29.) 136 Jesus goes to keep the passover at Jerusalem, SECT. xxiv. : SECT. XXIV. Our Lord celebrates the first passover of his public ministry at Jerusalem and vindicates the outer court of the temple from the profanation of those that bought and sold there. John II. 12, to the end. JOHN II. 12. JOHN II. 12. went down to Ca NOW, after Jesus had attended at this mar- AFTER this, he riage, where he miraculously turned the wa- pernaum, he and his John ter into wine, he and his mother, and his brethren mother, and his bre11. 12. (or his near relations) and his disciples, who were thren, and his discinow ready to attend him wheresoever he should nued there not many ples; and they contigo, went down from Cana to Capernaum, a city days. that lay near the north part of the sea of Galilee, on the south border of the land of Naphtali : and at this time the stay they made was but short, for they continued there not many days. And the reason of their leaving it so soon was that the passover of the Jews drew near, when it was ordered by the law of Moses that all the males should appear before the Lord (Exod. xxiii. 17. and Deut. xvi. 16.) and therefore Jesus, who maintained a religious regard to the ceremonial as well as the moral part of the law, went up to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. 13 14 13 And the Jews' passover was at hand, Jerusalem, and Jesus went up to 14 And found in the And, at his coming thither, he found, in the outer court and cloysters of the temple, those that, temple those that sold a The passover of the Jews drew near.] As the evangelists have not expressly de. termined the number of passovers which happened between the baptism and death of Christ, or during the course of his public ministry, so it is well known that learned men have been much divided in their opinions about them. By far the greater part have supposed there were four; reckoning this the first; the feast mentioned, John v. 1, the second; the passover spoken of, John vi. 4, as the third; and that, at which Christ suffered, the fourth. But there are others of a different opinion. The celebrated Sir Isaac Newton reckons five; the first, this which is now before us; the second, according to him, happened four months after Christ's discourse with the woman of Samaria, John iv. 35. the third, a few days before the story of the disciples rubbing the ears of corn, Luke vi. 1. the fourth, a little after the feeding of the five thousand; and the last, at the time of our Lord's crucifixion. The reasons for this the reader will find at large in Sir Isaac Newton's Observat. on Proph. Part I. chap. 11, and the most considerable under охеп, of them will be touched upon in their proper places.-Mr. Manne has with great learning and ingenuity attempted to revive a long exploded notion, that Christ's ministry continued but sixteen months; (see Manne's second Dissertation, p. 146, & seq.) so that there were but two passovers during the whole course of it. Mr. Whiston's reasoning against this hypothesis, in the sirth of his late dissertations, appears to me unanswerable. For he there shews that, if this was true, Christ must have travelled on an average near ten miles a day during the course of his ministry. Besides, the transpositions in scripture which this would introduce, seem very unwarrantable and dangerous; and, among other difficulties, it is none of the least that Mr. Manne is obliged to suppose that Christ only purged the temple at his last passover, and consequently that St. John has misplaced this story; though ver. 24, of this chapter, and ver. 22, 23, 24, of the next (sect. 27,) afford such strong arguments to the contrary. Compare note e and note m of this section. And drives the traders there out of the temple. oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting: small cords, he drove er's money, and overthrew the tables; 137 SECT. xxiv. John under a pretence of accommodating such as came to worship there with proper sacrifices, sold oxen, and sheep and doves; and he also saw there the money-changers sitting at their tables, who, for 11. 14. a certain profit, changed any foreign coin into that which was current, and larger pieces of money into half shekels, which were on some occasions to be paid into the sacred treasury. (Exod. 15 And when he xxx. 15.) Now, at the sight of this, Jesus was 15 had made a scourge of moved with a just indignation to think that so them all out of the sacred a place, honoured with such peculiar totemple, and the sheep, kens of the Divine presence, should be profaned and the oxen ; and in this audacious manner, and so great an affront poured out the chang- be put on the devout Gentiles, in whose court this market was kept ; and therefore, having made a whip of the small cords (with which they were used to tie the beasts to some rings fixed in the pavement for that purpose) he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen, which they had brought into it; and he also poured out the money of the exchangers, and overturned the 15 And said unto tables at which they were sitting. And he said 16 them that sold doves, to them that sold doces, Take all these things away hence; make not my from hence directly; [and] do not, for shame, Father's house an make my Father's house, by such scandalous practices as these, an house of public traffic, and turn it to a common market-place or exchange. Now, by his saying this, he openly proclaimed. that God was his Father, and made such a declaration Take these things house of merchandise. b Sold oxen, and sheep, and doces.] There must have been a grand market for these animals at such times; for Josephus tells us that no less than 256,500 victims were ofcred at one passover; see Joseph, de Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. 9. (al. vii. 17. § 3. p. 399.) Edit. Havercamp. He openly proclaimed that God was his Father.] The most considerable argument which Mr. Manne has brought to prove that this expulsion of the merchants from the temple happened only in our Lord's last passover, and consequently that it is here transposed, is, that such an open declaration that the Temple was his Father's house would have put him too much into the power of his enemies, and would have been inconsistent with the prudent reserve which Christ kept on this head (see Manne's Dissert. p. 179, 180, and compare Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity, p. 91, & seq.) as well as with the reflection of his brethren; John vii. 3, & seq. the notes on which place in sect. 98. may be consulted here.)-But, in reply to this objection, I would beg leave to observe, (1.) That for Jesus to call the temple his Father's house did not 138 χχίν. Christ's saying of the temple of his body. 17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal SECT. declaration of his Divine mission as could not but be greatly observed by the multitude. And his disciples, when they saw so meek a person in John II. 17. such an unusual transport of just displeasure, of thine house hath remembered that it was written of David, in eaten me up. words which well expressed the character of Christ on this occasion, (Psal. Ixix. 9.) " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up ;" as if it were said, A regard for the honour of thy sanctuary, like a secret flame glowing in my bosom, preys upon my spirits and would have consumed me, had I not given it vent. 18 Then answered 18 A fact so public and remarkable as this could not but immediately come to the knowledge of the Jews and said unto the priests and rulers of the Jews, whose thou unto us, seeing him, What sign shewest supreme council sate in a magnificent chamber that thou docst these belonging to the temple : some of them there- things? fore when they heard of it, answered and said unto him, By what authority dost thou thus take upon thee to reform what is amiss here, and what sign dost thou shew us, seeing that thou dost these things, to prove thy having a Divine commission, since it is certain thou hast none from 19 the government? Jesus answered and said unto them, You shall not want convincing evidence that I have an authority far superior to what man can give me ; for if you demolish this temple, I promise and assure you I will raise it up again 20 in three days. The Jews then said unto him, in proud derision and contempt of what they did not understand, This temple hath been no which refers to the miracles wrought at this feast is expressly said to have been before John the Baptist was imprisoned. Compare John iii. 22-24. sect. 27. d Reme.nbered that it was written of David.] That these words were originally spoken of David, and not of Christ, is plain from the fifth verse of the Ixixth Psalm; O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee; which cannot be applied to Christ. Abundance of other scriptures are quoted, with such a beautiful accommodation as this. e Rulers of the Jews. It seems most probable that the Jews here mentioned were rulers, because we know that the great assembly of Jewish rulers (that is, the sanhedrim) sat in the temple, and that the chief of them often attended public worship there. This action of Christ (in driving out the buyers and sellers) must undoubtedly come to their knowledge; and as their office would seem to authorize them less 19 Jesus answered and said unto them, and in three days I will Destroy this temple, raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple to call him to an account, we are sure their prejudices against him would incline them to do it. f A magnificent chamber belonging to the temple.] This fine rotundo was called, from its beautiful pavement, LisheathHaggazith, and stood on the wall of the temple, part of it within and part of it without its sacred precincts. See Calmet's Dictionary at the word Sanhedrim; Lightfoot's Description of the Temple, chap. 9. and Witsi Miscell, Saer. lib. i. Diss. iii. § 66. g Demolish this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.] It is most evident that Christ intended nothing more in these words than the paraphrase expresses, and did not mean to command them to demolish the temple; though his enemies indeed did, some years after, misrepresent this saying, as if he had intimated a purpose of doing it himself. Compare Mark xiv. 58. sect. 185. He foretells his resurrection in three days. thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body. 139 John in building, and wilt less than six and forty years building", (for it is SECT. now so long since Herod began to repair it) and xxiv. notwithstanding many thousand men have been employed upon it, it is not yet entirely finished; 11. 20. and wilt thou undertake to raise it up in three days? None certainly will be foolish enough to pull it down to try the experiment. But they 21 were quite mistaken in the sense of what he said; for what they understood him to have spoken of the temple at Jerusalem, he spake of the much more sacred temple of his own body, in which the Deity dwelt in a far nobler manner than in their holy place (Col. ii. 9.) and he might give some intimation of it in the gesture that he used in 22 When therefore speaking. When therefore he was risen from the 22 he was risen from the dead, just on the third day after his crucifixion, dead, his disciples remembered that he had his disciples remembered that he had said this to said this unto them them; and they yet more firmly believed the and they believed the scripture, and the word scripture in all its prophecies concerning the which Jesus had said. Messiah's kingdom, and their faith in him was confirmed by the word which Jesus had spoken: for such a wonderful event as the resurrection of Christ, considered in its connection with this solemn prediction', justly appeared as the fullest conceivable proof of his Divine mission. 23 Now when he And while he was at the passover in Jerusalem, 23 was in Jerusalem at on the feast-day, many of the Jews who were feast then present there, seeing the miracles which he the passover, in the This temple hath been six and forty years building.] Mr. Whiston (in his View of the Harmony, p. 143.) would render it, Forty and six years hath this temple been built: but, as it would have been absurd to argue from the time since the temple was built to the time it would require to rebuild it, this sense must certainly be wrong; and Dr. Lightfoot has well shewn that the word xu may signify (as we render it) it hath been so long building. Hor. Hebr. in loc.-Mr. Fleming's calculation (in his Christology, Vol. II. p. 366--371.) to prove that the second temple was forty-six years building, is not only very precarious, but also very unnecessary; for the words refer to the time since Herod began to rebuild it, which he first proposed to the people in the eighteenth year of his reign (Joseph. Antiq. Jud. lib. xv. cap. 11. (al. 14.) § 1. Havercamp); and though he finished what he proposed in eight or nine years, it seems (as Dr. Lightfoot and Dr. Lardner have judiciously observed) that the Jews still went on improving and adorning it: for long after this, under the government of Florus (about the year of Christ 65), wrought, Josephus speaks of the temple's being i The resurrection of Christ considered in * Seeing |